Friday, January 17, 2014

Alfy Fanjul, brother who is a major Democratic campaign contributor and counterpart to Pepe who anchors the GOP wing of the billionaire family, has granted a meeting to Charlie Crist, running to be Florida's next governor as a Democrat. There will be at least a third at the meeting; former state representative from Miami-Dade, Gaston Cantens, political consigliere to the Fanjul stake in Tallahassee and Washington, DC.

During the Jeb Bush era as governor of Florida, Cantons was the Republican water carrier for a massive effort by Big Sugar to undermine and re-write water quality protections for the Everglades. Those protections -- after decades of litigation -- were finally memorialized in the 1994 settlement agreement between the state and federal government; an agreement that resulted in the 2000 Everglades Restoration Plan. Undoing decades of effort to protect the Everglades, based on solid science, was one of Jeb's dimmest achievements. While those changes scattered environmentalists howling and sent some back to federal court, Cantens resigned and was appointed by the Fanjuls to attend their court, a rich reward for his work on their behalf.

When Charlie Crist became Florida's next governor, as a Republican, he pointedly ignored the Jeb! legacy on many fronts, especially the one related to the Everglades and the operations of the South Florida Water Management District. The district, whose governing board is appointed by the governor, is the sole taxing entity that provides money -- lots of it -- to the state side of the restoration equation. Since sugar began to be farmed in nearly one million acres of the Everglades Agricultural Area, the district has been controlled by Big Sugar.

The complete story of what happened in 2008 when Crist reached out to the Fanjul's competitor, US Sugar Corporation, to buy more than 130,000 acres of lands in sugar production for eventual return to the Everglades has never been written. But it is surely the subtext if not overtly so, of Crist's meeting with Alfy Fanjul.

"Mr Fanjul, Governor Crist is in the anteroom. How long shall we have him wait?"

The Fanjuls were outraged by Governor Crist's effort to tip the scales of Everglades restoration back towards the public interest in clean, fresh water for the Everglades by taking a big chunk out of sugar production. The New York Times wrote at the time, "When Gov. Charlie Crist announced Florida’s $1.75 billion plan to save the Everglades by buying out a major landowner, United States Sugar, he declared that the deal would be remembered as a public acquisition “as monumental as the creation of the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone. … Standing amid the marshes at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in June 2008, Mr. Crist said, “I can envision no better gift to the Everglades, the people of Florida and the people of America — as well as our planet — than to place in public ownership this missing link that represents the key to true restoration."

It is not going to be so easy to let bygones be bygones even if the entire story remains obscured. What can be pieced together is this: the enmity of the Fanjuls accrued to the advantage of Jeb!'s wing man in the legislature, Marco Rubio, who was propelled over challenger Charlie Crist to the US Senate thanks to Big Sugar money in the 2010 campaign. (In an interesting sidebar, the Democrats supported in that race Congressman Kendrick Meek, whose family connections to support from Big Sugar virtually guaranteed that Rubio would speed by Crist. And he did.)

Big Sugar is the most powerful dark force in Florida politics. It has allies, of course: the rock mining industry and forces allied with the Koch brothers / Tea Party for example. Billionaires like billionaires. With the legislature and executive office held by the GOP, it is very hard to imagine why the Fanjuls would even entertain shifting their allegiance in the governor's race, except that the incumbent, Rick Scott, has among the lowest approval ratings in the nation. Then, too, the public outrage in south Florida to water management practices that favor Big Sugar at the expense of billions of dollars of real estate on Florida's estuaries give Charlie Crist an opening. Much of that real estate on the St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee, stretching down to Naples, is owned by angry Republicans.

As for the Everglades, the restoration plan remains hostage to the profits guaranteed by the worst of corporate welfare embedded in the Farm Bill. You would think the GOP in Congress and Tea Party acolytes would be racing to evince their support for free markets and opposition to subsidies by eliminating the sugar program, the one that pays for the billionaire's domination of Florida politics. They won't and don't. The GOP support for Big Sugar is inviolable, the same way as land ownership is in the Everglades Agricultural Area; about a million acres that holds Everglades restoration hostage. The preternaturally sunny Charlie Crist would like bygones to be bygones with the Big Sugar billionaires, but with that he will need the help of Florida voters.

Isn't there a shred of hope for a real Democrat to win the primary? How can we trust Crist? He has demonstrated he has no solid beliefs or convictions. His only motivation is to get back at those who opposed him.

Crist was a good Governor and if he would have stayed, we would not have to deal with Scott. As stupid a move to run for Senate was, it's done and he wants his job back. I don't care what party he affiliates himself with because his past actions as Governor is a good predictor of how he'll be down the road. He was good on the Environmental issues and good to the people of Florida in general.

We know what Scott is and he is the ultimate anti environment, pro big business, screw the middle class guy who is not representative of the State.

The Dem's should be stepping up to the plate here and helping more then raising 25% of what the GOP is raising in the State and paying "staff" instead of helping Dem candidates across the Board. Crist and others have to get money where they can to have a campaign because the party won't/can't raise the funds the candidate has to. And, this is not exclusive to any one party. Look at all the indictments of the past with the State/County party's on both sides.

I am with you, anyone except Scott! Just because a politician accepts money from someone does not mean they will do whatever they say. Money is given by various interests to gain access, that is all. It does not guarantee they will get their way when it comes time to vote on their issues. But it will usually give them access to the elected official. As with anyone of importance, and given that time is finite and valuable, access to their presence is a gift and is limited to selected groups and individuals. There will only be one governor and no interest in the state, would be stupid enough to walk away from the possibility of access to the future governor. That is why many of them give to both sides. They don't care who wins, they want access to the power of the governorship. So, anybody except Scott!

Another fine piece of writing, of course. Except to say that "Democrats supported Meek" in the Senate race and therefore Rubio raced past Crist due to big sugar control of both party candidates is a vast oversimplification.

Meek won the primary, fair and square. Then a significant faction of the party ~and the media~ deserted him to support Crist. That is the reason that Rubio 'shot past' Crist; because of a divided party, not because of one united behind Meek.

And why must I feel the need to remind everyone that there actually is a (nominally) progressive Democrat running for Governor - Nan Rich. The punditocracy has given Crist the de-facto nomination before a single vote has been cast.

As a Democrat, I am indeed supporting Nan Rich. She has really shown what she stand for. It would be great to have a woman governor. I agree with the last Anon. It is embarrassing to see so-called Democrats rallying behind the spineless Crist.

Rich has got to fight it out for the nomination. She seems kind of quiet to me. No one is going to give her the nomination, she is going to have to take it at the ballot box. She is going to have to flex her political will at the polls. Whoever wins gets my vote. Anybody but Scott!

Whether she wins or not, it is important for her to run a robust, highly visible campaign to energize the base. She wins, she is ready to beat Scott to a pulp, we have our first woman governor, and Florida is in place to work with our first woman president. The same skills it will take to pull this off, are the same skills it will take to run this state. She loses, she has her base ready and can lead them to help Crist win. Either way, she needs to get on the campaign trail big time and get a massive operation going among frequent voters.

One way to think about elections is to think about football. They are both performance-based activities. No body is going to give you an inch, you have to work for any ground you get. If the other side is constantly moving the chains and if you can't stop them, soon they are going to have points on the board. And the one with the most points at the end of the game wins. There has been a lot of play-action from Crist, I have seen nothing from Rich.

I didn't vote for him when he was a Republican. I did t vote for him when he was an independent. I wouldn't vote for him today that he is a Democrat. Wonder what he'll be by November? Someone close to him said to me, "Charlie won't die a Democrat. He'll change once more during his lifetime."

New challenges, life-changing experiences, exposure to new information, daily trials and tribulations, problem-solving needs, new ways of looking at old problems, day by day transformations, and many other things all conspire to change us. So like many of us, he is evolving. . .